Surge Protectors As Fast As Possible
Techquickie
·Techquickie
·2016-05-06
·
1,060 words · ~5 min read
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you know if you think about it powering your electronics is a lot like cooking a
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waffle just the right amount of heat will give you a delicious breakfast item
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you can coat in maple syrup but too much and you'll end up with a charred pile of
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crap so similarly the sensitive equipment inside your PC home theater
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gaming console or whatever else needs a certain amount of electricity to run
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properly and too much will cause malfunctions or even destroy it entirely
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so the power that comes out of your outlet on your wall is actually
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susceptible to voltage surges so that is
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why many people use surge protectors to keep their stuff safe from nasty
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electrical mishap so then how do these work and what can they actually protect
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against it might be helpful to First understand what a surge protector isn't
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it is not the same as a regular power
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strip which provides no form of surge protection or suppression or anything
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like that it is not the same as an uninterruptible power supply or UPS
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which provides emergency backup power during an outage and it is not the same
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as a power conditioner which can clean up mild interference that causes
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electrical noise if the power running to your home isn't the best instead a surge
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protector does exactly what it says it protects against voltage surges which
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happen whenever there's an unintended change in electrical charge somewhere on
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the circuit that's going to your power outlet cuz voltage is basically just a
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difference in charge that allows current to flow so too much voltage can cause
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too much current which can fry your electronics although surges are often
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associated with lightning strikes the most frequent culprit is actually power
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hungry appliances though things like bad
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wiring and problems with the power grid itself can also cause surges so then how
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does a surge protector help whenever it detects a surge
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it actually shunts the extra electricity through a semiconducting material to a
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grounding wire which connects to that third prong on your plug this will send
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excess voltage back to the return line in the building's wiring which might
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trip a circuit breaker but won't damage whatever is plugged into the surge
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protector but before you rush out to buy one remember that all surge protectors
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have limitations most importantly they don't last forever every surge protector
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is ated for a certain number of jewels a measurement of energy that it can absorb
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and once a certain number of jewels hit your surge protector it won't offer any
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more protection and hardly anything will save you from a really strong power
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surge such as from a nearby lightning strike well gee lonus okay then how do I
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even know what to look for there are so many kinds that try to lure me in with
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fancy packaging and promises that they'll protect me from the hammer of
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Thor or whatever well first off Thor's hammer is actually a physical object and
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not really anything to do with electricity and second of all make sure
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you get one that is certified by Underwriters Laboratories or UL a
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consulting company that tests Electronics equipment there are a lot of
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Cheapo options out there that haven't been independently tested and may not
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actually protect anything also pay attention to the clamping voltage which
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is what the surge protector will reduce the voltage too although the power that
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comes out of a North American Outlet is 120 volts most Electronics can actually
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deal with small surges on their own so
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anything with a clamping voltage below 400 volts is probably fine and as I
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mentioned earlier you'll also want a protector That's rated for a high number
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of jewels so it'll last longer and protect against larger surges 600 is a
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good place to start but there are plenty of units that offer much more protection
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then finally many manufacturers will replace fried equip up to a certain
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dollar amount so make sure you read the fine print carefully so that you don't
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end up losing you know half a million bucks of stuff that you had plugged into
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your surge protector and have to haul all that stuff to the scrapyard but that
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kind of thing can be good to watch out for as well and you know what else is
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linda.com tequ thanks for watching guys
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